Spotify launches lossless audio streaming for premium users

Spotify has officially launched lossless audio streaming for its premium subscribers, marking a significant milestone in the platform's audio quality offerings.

The feature will begin rolling out on September 10, 2025, and represents the streaming giant's long-awaited entry into the high-fidelity audio market.

The introduction of lossless streaming comes after extensive speculation about whether Spotify would gate the feature behind a premium tier subscription.

However, the company has chosen to include lossless audio as part of its existing $12 (Sh1,400) Premium subscription, putting it in direct competition with Apple Music, which has offered lossless streaming since 2021.

Spotify announced that premium users can now stream tracks in up to 24-bit/44.1 kHz FLAC, the highest audio quality the service has ever offered.

This represents CD-quality audio resolution, delivering significantly more detail than the platform's previous 'Very High' quality setting.

Understanding lossless audio

Lossless audio technology preserves every detail of the original recording by avoiding compression that removes audio data.

Unlike standard streaming formats that compress files to reduce bandwidth usage, lossless formats maintain the full spectrum of sound, resulting in richer, more detailed listening experiences.

Lossless gives listeners every detail of the music, which means the audio files can be larger.

This increased file size means users may experience a brief delay when starting tracks as the system loads and caches the higher-quality audio data.

How to enable lossless audio

Activating Spotify's new lossless feature requires manual setup on each device, as the setting does not automatically apply across all devices linked to an account.

To enable it, users need to tap on their profile icon and then head to settings and privacy. From there, they will have to tap on media quality and then select the option to enable Lossless quality. They have to do this for Wi-Fi, cellular and download options where needed.

Once it is activated, a lossless indicator will appear in the 'Now Playing' view or bar, and via the 'Connect Picker', allowing users to verify when they're streaming in the highest quality format available.

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For the best experience with lossless audio, Spotify recommends specific setup conditions.

For the best listening experience, the company recommends streaming lossless music on Wi-Fi using wired audio equipment.

Bluetooth simply does not offer enough bandwidth to fully support the data requirements of lossless streaming, making wired connections essential for experiencing the full benefits.

Lossless is rolling out gradually to more than 50 markets through October, with premium subscribers receiving in-app notifications as the feature becomes available in their region. Kenya is yet to receive the update.

This phased approach allows Spotify to manage the increased server load and bandwidth requirements that come with streaming higher-quality audio files.

The launch positions Spotify competitively alongside other major streaming platforms that already offer lossless audio. Apple Music, Deezer, Amazon Music HD, and Tidal have previously captured audiophile markets with their high-fidelity offerings.